andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Pinedale, and JACKSON Wyoming!

These past two riding days have been challenging and beautiful, and today's day off in Jackson was great.

Wyoming!

A couple days ago, after a good 5mi climb!

Going to Pinedale, home of the Mountain Man and the Mountain Man Museum, was a 101 mile day and a strong headwind for the second half of the ride made for a long 7 hours on the saddle. On the ride, it seemed as if we came out of the desert into the Rockies again. On our right for most of the day were the Wind River Range of the Rockies, and ahead of us in the distance stood the jagged snowcaps of the Teton Range. It was a Sunday, and we had just missed out on the Mountain Man festival taking place that weekend, but did get to see some PC (Period Correct) horse and buggies leaving town as we came in. Perhaps the most interesting thing I learned was that mountain men (how many times can I type that) didn't actually have big beards like my own, but rather clean shaven so as to resemble their customers, Native Americans.
I spent most of the night doing the group's laundry, it was my turn on trailer crew and with Heather and Jen we did 31 people's laundry from three days in less than two hours. We still got to see the sunset, which was very pretty and by the time we got back, I had just enough time to clean my bike before going to bed for the night.

Coming into Jackson Hole I rode with my team for the photo scavenger hunt, and Sharif was sweep so our team stuck with him and we did a sort of "group sweep."  The ride in came up to the rim, and then down through the Hoback Canyon to Jackson Hole.  It was a beautiful ride, next to the river in the canyon was perfect.  There was a 5-6mi section of really rough dirt/gravel, and it got my bike all dirty after I just cleaned it last night and the headwind coming into town was sooo strong, that canyon was  like a wind tunnel, but after a second 7 hour ride we prevailed.  Our host is the Ambler family, who heard about us through their church and has put us up for four years now.  Their house is beautiful, next to rolling pasture with cattle and horses and right below the Teton Mtns.

So dirty....

The Hoback River on the way in

On our day off, I got to sleep in which was excellent, then take a van ride through the park to see BISON!  Jackson is really cool town with shops and outfitters and a cool brewery and bike store.  I got some cool stuff including a new cycling cap, a glass, a camping hat, and bandanna to keep my neck out of the sun.

Bison!

Look how huge they are...

Yeahh

Kristen under the antler arch in town

Look how far we've come!